1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a panhead for rotatably supporting a camera unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a technique related to a panhead for rotatably supporting a camera unit, which causes the lens principal point (center point) position of the camera unit to constantly align with the rotational axis of the same and provides effective means for panorama shooting (means for making joints between a plurality of images look natural) (see e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-147643). According to the proposed technique, the lens principal point position is caused to be aligned with the rotational axis of the camera unit in accordance with movement of the lens principal point position for a focus operation or a zoom operation during a panorama shooting.
The above conventional art, however, suffers from the problem that in a normal use mode (in which panorama shooting is not performed), the center-of-gravity position of a rotary body including the camera unit deviates from the rotational axis of the camera unit. This causes reduction of the rotational speed of the rotary body and an increase in the rise time (time required for enabling rotation) of the same. On the other hand, to overcome the problem to thereby increase the rotational speed of the rotary body and reduce the rise time, a large rotary drive mechanism is required.